In Turas Teanga, Aonad 4, there's a dialogue between the dochtúir and Cathal, where the doctor is interviewing Cathal about his weekly activities. After Cathal answers for Thursdays, the doctor then moves to Fridays and says

"Dé hAoine ansan?"

The translation in the book indicates this phrase as "On Friday then?"

My question has to do with the word "ansan." Is this a form of the word "then?" The dialogue in the book is between two people using the Ulster dialect. Or is it just a typographical error for the word "ansin?"

Go raith maith agaibh,

Dáithí

Ansin.

Dialect, I would say.

I searched the archives on Daltai, and also did a google search, and the word "ansan" shows up enough times to convince me that it is indeed an Irish word. I couldn't follow the threads completely, but there appears to be some spelling issue originally with ansin, in that a long vowel, "a" was next to a short vowel "i", where as that doesn't occur with "ansan." I got the impression that "ansan" was an earlier spelling of "ansin."

Dáithí

Yes, of course "ansan" is an Irish word, and one of the most common ones too. In some dialects, including the "Standard" it has been turned into "ansin" but "ansan" is both the original form and very much alive. In Munster you wouldn't hear "ansin".

Go raith maith agat a Jonas,

Could you help me with the pronunciation? Is it pronounced just like ansin? The way ansan is spelled, it looks like it would be pronounced, using English phonetics, as "un san.'

Dáithí

Yes, you're quite right - although I'm not to keen on "English phonetics" (a self-contradiction in my opinion ;-) ) that is the pronunciation.

[@n'san]

From a certain Irish poem:

Ag an am san den oíche

At that time of the night.

san = sin

It's pronounced like the English words "sun" and "son".

Similarly, ansan = "on sun".

I believe it's Munster Irish.